Thursday, December 02, 2004

Cover Me!

The Age Of Chance

I have to admit that this song is the only Age Of Chance track I go back to and listen to now. I loved the whole concept of the band and especially the record packaging but never really got my head around their music. But this fulfills an important rule for cover versions I think, that if you’re gonna do a cover, do something different with it. In the case of The Age Of Chance take a classic song put pull it apart mix it up with your heady blend of construction site sounds and viola! Much better than Tom “I’m orange and sweaty” Jones’ version I’m sure (hope) you’ll agree. Ok my brief history of The Age Of Chance – Cycling outfits – Slogans – Singles with cool names – Vocalist very shouty – Mr shouty leaves – new vocalist can sing – second album – indifference – split. Let me know if I missed out anything?

The Popguns

The Popguns were slightly different as they decided against the skin tight lycra, at least in public, and instead delivering song upon song of wonderful guitar pop with excellent lyrics. Based in Brighton they released a whole bunch of singles and an album “Love Junky” you can always pick up for next to nothing on the likes of half.com. They had the distinct disadvantage of releasing most of their songs first on Medium Cool, and then on Midnight Music two labels who had a bunch of great bands (Waltones, Corn Dollies, Caretaker Race, Wolfhounds) and what seemed like an inability to sell records. Here we have the band’s cover of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” and a song from their second single. As an aside, Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest used to be a regular patron at a Barnes & Noble I used to work at, and he had the coolest coat, looked like Yeti hair. Sadly I never summoned up the courage to enquire “Excuse me, Mr. Tip is that real Yeti?”

Hi Steve,Nice site. Your Age of Chance piece, which I've just found via Google was/is pretty much on the money, and as an ex-member of the band I speak with some authority on this subject!Best Wishes,Geoff-T (All-Nite Bass Frequencies).